1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a synchronization and communication control system among processors in a computer system configured in the form of a multiprocessor
2.Description of the Prior Art
Vector processors have been developed for the purpose of processing scientific calculus at a high speed. Although even a single vector processor can exhibit high performance, there has also been developed a vector processor system configured in the form of multiprocessor, in which a plurality of vector processors are interconnected and operated in parallel (hereinafter referred to as a multivector processor), with a view of further providing improved performance.
One of conventional multivector processors is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-37064 (1985).
Multivector processors have the following application forms:
(1) One program is executed by a plurality of processors. Thus, one program is divided into a plurality of tasks and these tasks are separately processed by the plurality of processors in parallel for improving the performance; PA1 (2) A plurality of processors respectively process separate programs in parallel Thus, a plurality of programs are processed concurrently; and PA1 (3) Combination of (1) and (2). PA1 (1) High-speed communication, i.e., high-speed data transfer, can be performed among the processors; PA1 (2) Tasks separately executed by the respective processors can be synchronized at a high speed; and PA1 (3) No illegal interference occurs between the processors respectively processing different programs. PA1 (1) An instruction for transferring data between the common vector register and a vector register in each vector processor; PA1 (2) An instruction for transferring data between the common vector register and a main storage; and PA1 (3) An instruction for changing the content of the access right field of the common vector register, and an instruction for reading the content thereof.
When the multivector processor is used in any of the application forms, synchronization and communication means among the processors is required to have the following functions:
Of all the above, (1) and (2) are functions important in case of processing one program by a plurality of processors, while (3) is a function important in case of processing a plurality of programs by separate processors concurrently.